Yesterday I did cross-training (elliptical) to try and recover from Tuesday's disastrous 15K. I honestly felt pretty good by this morning when I arrived at the track. It was very dark at 5:45 am, but it was pretty warm at 55F (about 12C) and I warmed up well. My left glutes were definitely tired from Tuesday (I probably shouldn't have done the last 3k of that workout), but I figured I'd be all right. And I was...for a while.
I was to do 3x2k and 4x500m with 2' rest. I started on the first 2k, and felt decent, completing it in 11:01 (I thought it was 10:59 when I talked to my coach, but it was actually 11:01) feeling pretty strong and knowing I'd have enough for the rest of the workout. I took my 2 min rest and stretched my left leg because it felt stiff. Guess what? It was really stiff and sore, as I found out when I started the next 2k. I made it 500m in 2:46 before it hurt quite a bit and I had to stop and stretch again. I thought I'd do another 500m and see if it loosened up at all. It didn't. After a slow 2:52 500m, it got worse, and I was almost limping, so I called it quits reluctantly.
Coach thinks it's my piriformis. It probably is; hard for me to tell for sure. I went to the gym and did the foam roller for a bit, and did the elliptical for a little to loosen it up, which helped somewhat.
I texted my coach, and because of the time difference, he was asleep (6:30 am here = 11:30pm in Melbourne these days). He did call me as soon as he woke up, and we talked for a while. This race could really go one of two ways for me: I'm in good shape, and when I'm fresh I've had fast workouts. However, I've been really sore and am not quite recovered from the 40K. If I recover by then, I could still have a really fast race. But if not, the last 10K of the 30K could be very ugly. And it could go either way - no one really knows what will happen. Jim still thinks I should do the race, and I am inclined to do it since I've done most of the training, and I was going to travel anyway for my HS reunion. But part of me is very afraid...
So, because of all this, I've earned myself a few more days of cross-training, followed by 20K on Sunday instead of our planned 25K on Saturday. Bummer. I really wanted to do 25K before the race. Jim says that the training I had this summer will carry me through the distance, as long as I'm recovered enough. He's usually right, so here's hoping.
Garmin data here.
2 comments:
Hey, good luck with the piriformis; get your guy to give you the "elbow to the butt". That helped me.
As per your excellent advice, Ollie, I did get Loren to massage the muscle in question. It is SO sore though, that the elbow was out of the question. He got good results with thumbs though. Going to have to have him repeat it frequently for a while I think. The massage helped but as you know it's not a cure. Rest for a couple days will hopefully go a long way.
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